LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has four dogs prepared to go to new homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of boxer, hound, Maltese, terrier and pit bull.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Sophie’
“Sophie” is a female boxer-pit bull mix with a short red coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14356.
Male terrier
This young male terrier has a coarse white coat with brown markings.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14487.
Male Maltese
This senior male Maltese has a long white coat.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 14489.
‘Sanders’
“Sanders” is a young male hound mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14497.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
A panel of experts met on April 14, 2021, to review evidence on blood clots that have been reported in seven people after they received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on immunization. It delayed voting on a recommendation to the CDC so that members can further evaluate risk and data. The clotting, which resulted in one woman’s death, led the CDC and FDA on April 13, 2021, to pause use of the J&J vaccine. Dr. William Petri, an infectious disease physician and immunologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, answers questions to help put this development in context.
What is this potential side effect of the J&J vaccine for COVID-19?
The potential side effect is a blood clot in the veins that drain blood from the brain. This is called central venous sinus thrombosis. In the vaccine-associated cases of this, platelets in blood, which are important for making clots, have been lower than normal. This same side effect has been seen in the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine that also uses an adenovirus to deliver the coronavirus spike glycoprotein. In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the clotting disorder has been linked to antibodies against platelet factor 4 (PF4) that are apparently induced by the adenovirus backbone of the vaccine. This antibody causes the clotting disorder by activating platelets to clot.
It is important to note that this disorder, called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, is not a problem with the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
How many people have experienced this possible reaction?
As of April 13, 2021, about one in a million: Six cases out of the 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine administered in the U.S. These six cases all occurred in women ages 18-48, and from 6 to 13 days after vaccination. That’s about half as likely as getting struck by lightning in a year. A seventh case was included in the ACIP review on April 14.
What do I do if I got the J&J shot?
The CDC and FDA are recommending that people who have received the J&J vaccine within the last 3 weeks who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath should contact their health care provider.
This type of blood clot is treatable with the use of blood thinners or anticoagulants. If a patient has low platelets, however, a doctor would not prescribe the widely used anticoagulant heparin but instead another kind of blood thinner. Untreated, these blood clots can be fatal.
What are the CDC and FDA specifically recommending for the J&J vaccine?
Because of this rare occurrence, even though it has not been shown to be due to the vaccine, the CDC and FDA have recommended a pause in use of the J&J vaccine until these cases can be further reviewed.
What are the next steps?
The CDC convened a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on April 14, 2021. The ACIP is an independent board of 15 scientific and medical experts selected by the health and human services secretary that advises the CDC on vaccines for children and adults. People with ties to vaccine manufacturers are excluded from the ACIP membership because of potential conflict of interest.
On April 14, ACIP reviewed the available evidence but did not vote on recommendations because panel members expressed concern that the panel needs more time to evaluate data and risks. The vaccine has been given to 3.8 million people in the past two weeks. Therefore, not enough time has passed to see whether other people might also experience these serious clots. The panel is expected to meet again within a week to 10 days.
Is this similar to what happened with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe?
A similar rare problem of blood clotting with low platelets in the cerebral venous sinus and also in the abdominal veins and arteries has been seen in connection with the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine used in Europe. There, 182 cases were reported in 190 million doses – again, roughly 1 in 1 million people vaccinated. The European Medicines Agency investigated this and concluded that central venous sinus thrombosis with low platelets should be listed as a possible “very rare side effect” of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The U.S. has a total of three vaccines authorized under emergency use authorization for COVID-19, and this side effect has not been observed in the other two vaccines, developed by Moderna and Pfizer. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines do not use the same technology used in the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines. So vaccination against COVID-19 can continue, while efforts are made to determine if the clotting disorder is related by chance or a true, but extremely rare, side effect of the J&J vaccine.
I believe it is a testament to the emphasis by the CDC and FDA on vaccine safety that J&J vaccinations have been paused while this is studied by independent scientists and medical experts.
This article was updated on April 14, 2021 to add additional research and the ACIP committee meeting.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Citizens Redistricting Commission will hold a livestreamed event next week to share information about the work it will be doing this year to redraw local and state government representative boundaries.
The commission will host the “Redistricting Basics” presentation with a live question and answer period from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 20.
Watch the livestream at www.WeDrawTheLinesCA.org under the “meetings” tab, where the commission’s regular meetings also can be viewed, and sign up to let them know you’re attending here.
Attend to find out about what redistricting is, fair representation and why it’s important, what factors the commission will consider when drawing the maps and how Californians can have a say in the process.
The commission was created by the VOTERS FIRST Act in 2008.
It uses Census data to redraw Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly and State Board of Equalization districts every 10 years so that the districts correctly reflect the state’s population.
In carrying out their work, commissioners must follow “strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create districts of relatively equal population that will provide fair representation for all Californians,” the commission website explains.
The 14-member commission, seated in 2020, is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four not affiliated with either of those two parties.
Commission representatives told Lake County News said they expect to receive the Census data this summer, with the goal of being finished with the process by the end of this year.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Eleven billion miles away – more than four times the distance from us to Pluto – lies the boundary of our solar system’s magnetic bubble, the heliopause. Here the Sun’s magnetic field, stretching through space like an invisible cobweb, fizzles to nothing. Interstellar space begins.
“It's really the largest boundary of its kind we can study,” said Walt Harris, space physicist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
We still know little about what lies beyond this boundary. Fortunately, bits of interstellar space can come to us, passing right through this border and making their way into the solar system.
A new NASA mission will study light from interstellar particles that have drifted into our solar system to learn about the closest reaches of interstellar space.
The mission, called the Spatial Heterodyne Interferometric Emission Line Dynamics Spectrometer, or SHIELDS, will have its first opportunity to launch aboard a suborbital rocket from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on April 19, 2021.
Our entire solar system is adrift in a cluster of clouds, an area cleared by ancient supernova blasts. Astronomers call this region the Local Bubble, an oblong plot of space about 300 light-years long within the spiraling Orion arm of our Milky Way galaxy. It contains hundreds of stars, including our own Sun.
We fare this interstellar sea is our trusty vessel, the heliosphere, a much smaller (though still gigantic) magnetic bubble blown up by the Sun. As we orbit the Sun, the solar system itself, encased in the heliosphere, hurtles through the Local Bubble at about 52,000 miles per hour (23 kilometers per second). Interstellar particles pelt the nose of our heliosphere like rain against a windshield.
Our heliosphere is more like a rubber raft than a wooden sailboat: Its surroundings mold its shape. It compresses at points of pressure, expands where it gives way. Exactly how and where our heliosphere’s lining deforms gives us clues about the nature of the interstellar space outside it. This boundary – and any deformities in it – are what Walt Harris, principal investigator for the SHIELDS mission, is after.
SHIELDS is a telescope that will launch aboard a sounding rocket, a small vehicle that flies to space for a few minutes of observing time before falling back to Earth. Harris’ team launched an earlier iteration of the telescope as part of the HYPE mission in 2014, and after modifying the design, they’re ready to launch again.
SHIELDS will measure light from a special population of hydrogen atoms originally from interstellar space. These atoms are neutral, with a balanced number of protons and electrons. Neutral atoms can cross magnetic field lines, so they seep through the heliopause and into our solar system nearly unfazed – but not completely.
The small effects of this boundary crossing are key to SHIELDS’s technique. Charged particles flow around the heliopause, forming a barrier. Neutral particles from interstellar space must pass through this gauntlet, which alters their paths. SHIELDS was designed to reconstruct the trajectories of the neutral particles to determine where they came from and what they saw along the way.
A few minutes after launch, SHIELDS will reach its peak altitude of about 186 miles (300 kilometers) from the ground, far above the absorbing effect of Earth’s atmosphere. Pointing its telescope towards the nose of the heliosphere, it will detect light from arriving hydrogen atoms. Measuring how that light’s wavelength stretches or contracts reveals the particles’ speed. All told, SHIELDS will produce a map to reconstruct the shape and varying density of matter at the heliopause.
The data, Harris hopes, will help answer tantalizing questions about what interstellar space is like.
For instance, astronomers think the Local Bubble as a whole is about 1/10th as dense as most of the rest of the galaxy’s main disk. But we don’t know the details – for instance, is matter in the Local Bubble is distributed evenly, or bunched up in dense pockets surrounded by nothingness?
“There's a lot of uncertainty about the fine structure of the interstellar medium – our maps are kind of crude,” Harris said. “We know the general outlines of these clouds, but we don't know what's happening inside them.”
Astronomers also don’t know much about the galaxy’s magnetic field. But it should leave a mark on our heliosphere that SHIELDS can detect, compressing the heliopause in a specific way based on its strength and orientation.
Finally, learning what our current plot of interstellar space is like could be a helpful guide for the (distant) future. Our solar system is just passing through our current patch of space. In some 50,000 years, we’ll be on our way out of the Local Bubble and on to who knows what.
“We don't really know what that other cloud is like, and we don't know what happens when you cross a boundary into that cloud,” Harris said. “There's a lot of interest in understanding what we're likely to experience as our solar system makes that transition.”
Not that our solar system hasn’t done it before. Over the last four billion years, Harris explains, Earth has passed through a variety of interstellar environments. It’s just that now we’re around, with the scientific tools to document it.
“We're just trying to understand our place in the galaxy, and where we're headed in the future,” Harris said.
Miles Hatfield works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Like boot prints on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Now, new images — taken during the spacecraft's final fly-over on April 7 — reveal the aftermath of its historic encounter with the asteroid.
The spacecraft flew within 2.3 miles of the asteroid — the closest it has been since the Touch-and-Go, or TAG, sample collection event on Oct. 20, 2020.
During TAG, the spacecraft's sampling head sunk 1.6 feet into the asteroid's surface and simultaneously fired a pressurized charge of nitrogen gas, churning up surface material and driving some into the collection chamber.
The spacecraft's thrusters also launched rocks and dust during the maneuver to reverse course and safely back away from the asteroid.
Comparing the two images reveals obvious signs of surface disturbance. At the sample collection point, there appears to be a depression, with several large boulders evident at the bottom, suggesting that they were exposed by sampling.
There is a noticeable increase in the amount of highly reflective material near the TAG point against the generally dark background of the surface, and many rocks were moved around.
Where thrusters fired against the surface, substantial mass movement is apparent. Multiple sub-meter boulders were mobilized by the plumes into a campfire ring–like shape — similar to rings of boulders seen around small craters pocking the surface.
Jason Dworkin, the mission's project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noticed that one boulder measuring 4 feet across on the edge of the sampling site seemed to appear only in the post-TAG image. “The rock probably weighs around a ton, with a mass somewhere between a cow and a car.”
Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona and the mission's principal investigator, later pointed out that this boulder is likely one of those present in the pre-TAG image, but much nearer the sampling location, and estimates it was thrown a distance of 40 feet (about 12 meters) by the sample collection event.
In order to compare the before and after images, the team had to meticulously plan this final flyover.
"Bennu is rough and rocky, so if you look at it from a different angle or capture it at a time when the sun is not directly overhead, that dramatically changes what the surface looks like. These images were deliberately taken close to noon, with the Sun shining straight down, when there's not as many shadows,” said Dathon Golish, a member of the OSIRIS-REx image processing working group, headquartered at the University of Arizona.
"These observations were not in the original mission plan, so we were excited to go back and document what we did," Golish said. "The team really pulled together for this one last hurrah."
The spacecraft will remain in Bennu's vicinity until departure on May 10, when the mission will begin its two-year return cruise back to Earth. As it approaches Earth, the spacecraft will jettison the Sample Return Capsule, or SRC, that contains the sample from Bennu.
The SRC will then travel through Earth’s atmosphere and land under parachutes at the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023.
Once recovered, the capsule will be transported to the curation facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the sample will be removed for distribution to laboratories worldwide, enabling scientists to study the formation of our solar system and Earth as a habitable planet. NASA will set 75% of the sample aside for future generations to study with technologies not invented yet.
The OSIRIS-REx mission is the first NASA mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, survey the surface, and collect a sample to deliver to Earth.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing.
Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
This workshop will be broadly accessible to the community via the “hybrid meeting” approach recently used for regular board meetings.
Public participation is invited in the Board of Supervisors’ chambers, although capacity is limited to 23 persons, due to COVID-19 precautions.
To encourage broad and safe participation, electronic options (Phone, Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, written Granicus eComment, Lake County PEG TV) are also available.
To participate via Zoom, click this link. The webinar ID is 978 7624 1197, passcode 191027.
To participate by any landline or mobile phone, dial 669-900-6833 and enter the webinar ID and passcode above. If you have a comment, dial *9, and the Board Chair or Zoom host will recognize you at the appropriate timing. Dial *6 to unmute your phone, once called on.
The annual governance workshops are an important priority-setting activity in the county’s annual budget cycle, with board members building on and promoting actions in support of their Vision 2028 Statement, developed in collaboration with the community in 2018.
During this year’s workshop, board members will each present at least two proposed goals and related justification, including any known challenges associated with translating each goal into action.
The county said these goals will be “realistic and measurable,” and focused on promoting:
– Better quality of life for Lake County residents; – A cleaner, safer Lake County; and – Staff development, leading to more effective use of public funds.
Public input will be taken, and the board will then work to gain consensus support for at least two “top priority goals,” which will be advanced in the coming fiscal year. The second half of the session will feature open discussion with county department heads.
“We really appreciate all of those that have engaged in local government in person and via electronic means over the past year, and we’re looking forward to a substantive governance workshop,” said Board Chair and District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Artists and community members interested in participating in the EcoArts Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park in Middletown are encouraged to submit proposals by Tuesday, April 20.
For this 15th year of the Sculpture Walk, the primary purpose remains supporting revitalization of the land, and mending of damaged ecosystems within a local natural preserve that was damaged in the 2015 Valley fire.
Work should relate to the natural environment and integrate the spirit and materials of the park and of Lake County. Trees and flora are coming back with vitality.
All proposals will be juried. Artists may request to lead a workshop at the park to help with creation of new work. Some stipends are available.
Artwork will remain in the park through the duration of the exhibit through November and may not damage the park environment in any way.
Work that has restorative effects on the environment and is not susceptible to extreme weather changes may be selected to remain on view beyond the regular season.
An in-person or google-satellite visit to the park prior to submitting an application is encouraged.
Trailside Park is open from dawn to dusk daily and located at 21435 Dry Creek Cutoff. Videos of work from 2019 and an application are available at www.MiddletownArtCenter.org/ecoarts
The application fee $20; no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Submissions are due by April 20; installation is May 14 through May 29.
A public opening reception will be held June 12.
Those with questions or needing a little more time, are requested to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with subject line “Sculpture Walk” or call 707-809-8118.
Find out more about exhibits, opportunities, events, classes and all the good things happening at Middletown Art Center at www.middletownartcenter.org.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Thursday, four months after the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine began to be administered in the state of California, officials threw open the doors to allow every person age 16 and above to be vaccinated.
The state has increasingly loosened restrictions on who can get the vaccine thanks to increasing supply and more vaccines coming on the market.
California previously expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to individuals aged 50 and older starting April 1.
Officials said the eligibility expansion comes as California reaches major milestones in its vaccine rollout: Nearly half of all residents in the 16 and older population have already received at least one dose, including 73.9 percent of seniors aged 65 and older.
As of Thursday, more than 24 million doses have been administered in California, with 4.9 million doses administered in the hardest hit communities.
The statewide provider network now has the capacity to administer up to six million vaccine doses a week, according to its third-party administrator Blue Shield of California.
“Thanks to the hard work of Californians who followed public health guidelines, our case rates and hospitalizations are among the lowest they’ve been since the start of the pandemic,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom.
However, Newsom said the work is far from over. “California will need all hands on deck to keep up this progress, and I encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccinating all of those who are eligible will take time, but our statewide providers are ready to meet the increased demand and we are excited to get this vaccine into the arms of all Californians who want them, especially those in the hardest hit communities.”
California’s eligibility expansion meets a nationwide deadline set by President Joe Biden that all adults in the U.S. be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by April 19.
“As these life-saving vaccines put the worst behind us, it is important to not let our guard down, even after being fully vaccinated,” said Director of the California Department of Public Health and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón. “We urge Californians to continue wearing face coverings, practice physical distancing, limit extended indoor activities with others, and follow all the best practices to stop the spread of COVID-19 to help protect your friends, family and neighbors.”
Officials have been focusing on allocating COVID-19 vaccines to ensure equitable distribution.
Last month, the state began directing 40 percent of vaccine doses to the hardest-hit areas of the state based on the lowest quartile of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California’s Healthy Places Index.
Six of Lake County’s zip codes – for the communities of Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Finley, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake – are among 446 that were targeted for increased vaccine supply due to being in the Healthy Places Index’s lowest-performing quartile, as Lake County News has reported.
This week, the state said it reached the 4.9 million mark in doses administered in those hard-hit communities across California.
The local picture
Sarah Marikos, Lake County’s epidemiologist, said this week that 43 percent of Lake County residents aged 16 and older are partially vaccinated, with more than 22,000 people having received at least one dose.
On Thursday, the California Department of Public Health gave a precise number of doses administered by county of residence, totaling 34,259 for Lake County.
Dr. Evan Bloom, who is interim Public Health officer while Dr. Gary Pace is on vacation, told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that new case numbers locally are on a downward trajectory,
While there are viral variants circulating in Lake County – a fact state and local health officials first confirmed earlier this year – Bloom said the immunity that is derived from the vaccines that are being administered still holds against the variants.
Bloom said the positive COVID-19 cases now being reported in Lake County are in people who are not fully vaccinated, which is why health officials continue to focus on vaccinating residents.
“This is the best way forward to protect our residents of Lake County against COVID-19,” Bloom said.
Individuals seeking an opportunity to get vaccinated may still need to wait for an appointment. Eligible residents can visit https://myturn.ca.gov/ – which is available in 12 languages – to find and schedule available appointments or call the COVID-19 hotline at 833-422-4255; assistance is available in more than 250 languages.
All COVID-19 vaccines are free regardless of immigration or health insurance status. Residents with questions about the vaccines can visit https://www.vaccinateall58.com/ to learn more.
In addition to being vaccinated through the state signup process, Adventist Health and Sutter Health are hosting vaccine clinics for all eligible community members, not just their registered patients. Contact Adventist Health at 707-995-4500 or Sutter Health at 844-987-6115 or https://www.sutterhealth.org/for-patients/health-alerts/covid-19-vaccine for more information.
Lake County Tribal Health Consortium continues to vaccinate its patients. For information, visit http://www.lcthc.com/ or call 707-263-8382.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – City officials said this week that ongoing issues with the restrooms at Lakeport’s Library Park are resulting in additional security measures.
The city reported that its Public Works Department staff has been dealing with an increase in maintenance and upkeep at the public restrooms at Library Park and the nearby boat ramps.
Officials said the city also has received complaints from the public regarding some people using the restrooms for extended periods – for 30 minutes or more – and leaving behind hazardous items like used needles.
There have also been confirmed reports of individuals locking the doors and sleeping in the restrooms overnight, the city said.
To help resolve some of these ongoing problems, all of the public restrooms at Library Park and the nearby boat ramps will be closed and locked at midnight each night, the city said.
The city said the restrooms at the First, Third and Fifth Street launch ramps will be locked at midnight. The primary restrooms, next to Carnegie Library at Library Park, are locked at approximately 4:30 p.m. each day.
In addition, the city said Lakeport Police officers will be increasing patrols in the area to enhance public safety.
The city said staff will open all of the restrooms to the public each morning, seven day sa week.
The Fifth Street restroom will be unlocked at approximately 6 a.m. and the Third Street, First Street and primary restrooms will be unlocked by approximately 8 a.m., the city reported.
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles on creating a bird-friendly community in Lake County as part of Bird Appreciation Month.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Predation by domestic cats is the No. 1 direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada.
In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year.
Although this number may seem unbelievable, it represents the combined impact of tens of millions of outdoor cats.
Seven thousand years ago, the European and African wild cat was domesticated to reduce the number of rats and mice that resided in settlements.
Over time, the process of domestication changed the wild cat into a separate species: domestic or house cat (Felis catus).
Today’s domestic cats have four classifications: Indoor, limited-range, free-range or community and feral. Feral cats have no owners.
In Lake County all dogs and cats should have attached to its body a current license tag. And if someone feeds community or feral cats it is unlawful unless that person first obtains from the director of Animal Control a cat colony permit (free roaming and/or confined cats) and agrees to three conditions: 1) water/feed 2) spayed, neutered, rabies vaccinated all 8 weeks and up and ear clipped 3) testing for FIV/FELV and take action for the infected cats.
Show your cat how much it is loved, and at the same time protect birds and wildlife, by providing fresh air and outdoor enrichment in a “catio” or cat enclosure/patio. Life expectancy for an indoor cat can reach 15 years compared to a feral cat’s three to five years.
A catio, or cat patio, allows your cat to explore the sights, sounds and smells of the great outdoors.
Anyone with a window can have a catio. The window box catio is a good choice for single-cat homes and for owners just beginning to dip their toes into the world of catio living.
A balcony catio, porch catio or an outdoor run all could be exciting for your favorite feline. There are even pop-up and portable catios.
You can find ideas in so many styles – simple to unbelievably extravagant at retailers and on-line.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday took action against Pacific Gas and Electric for what the commission called “insufficient progress” in the utility company’s efforts to reduce wildfire risks in its service territory.
The CPUC voted to place PG&E into the first of the six steps in the Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process, which was created specifically to hold the company accountable for improving its safety record after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2020.
The resolution to take the action shows that the process allows the commission “to take additional steps to ensure PG&E is improving its safety performance” if specific “triggering events” occur.
The resolution notes, “The steps range from Step 1, which contains enhanced reporting and oversight requirements, to Step 6, involving the potential revocation of PG&E’s ability to operate as a California electric utility.”
The CPUC’s resolution invokes Step 1, “with regard to PG&E’s insufficient progress with risk-driven wildfire mitigation efforts,” and requires PG&E to submit a corrective action plan within 20 days of the resolution effective date.
Both the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office and The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, asked the CPUC to take stronger action against PG&E.
“We’re glad the CPUC took this step but it should have included closer oversight of PG&E’s other shortcomings in its resolution,” said Maya Chupkov, the Public Advocates Office’s director of strategic communications and outreach, on Thursday afternoon.
In a statement issued to Lake County News, PG&E said its most important responsibility is the safety of its customers and the communities it serves.
“We take today’s vote and the feedback from the Wildfire Safety Division and others seriously, and as a result we have already implemented significant improvements to our Enhanced Vegetation Management program and will continue to do so as outlined in our 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan. It is in all of our best interests to work together to improve our safety performance for the benefit of our customers and the communities we are privileged to serve,” the company said.
PG&E said is already has implemented a new 2021 wildfire distribution risk model and elevated its transparency and oversight, explaining that its newly formed Wildfire Risk Governance Steering Committee is responsible for approving the selection of enhanced vegetation management work locations “and monitoring regular reporting of work completed to ensure actual work is aligned with the planned risk reduction and performed with the highest level of quality.”
The company said this year it’s tripling the number of its work verification inspectors that are performing post-tree work inspections on work performed in high fire-threat districts to make sure work is getting done in its enhanced and routine vegetation management programs.
It’s using ground-based LiDAR in vehicles as a post-inspection review of completed circuits for vegetation management work and has staffed a centralized team of arborists to investigate any concerns or findings raised by the CPUC, the Federal Monitor, the Governor’s Operational Observer or any of our external stakeholders to ensure timely follow-up and resolution any issues that are identified.
PG&E said it’s also implementing a more effective operating structure that establishes daily operating reviews to improve visibility into all facets of its performance.
PG&E’s went into bankruptcy in 2019 following several catastrophic wildfires in its service territory – among them, the 2017 North Bay firestorm that included the Sulphur fire in Clearlake Oaks in Lake County and the 2018 Camp fire that destroyed Paradise in Butte County.
The CPUC later approved PG&E’s reorganization plan and allowed it to emerge from bankruptcy, but the company had to follow specific financial and operational conditions, the CPUC’s document shows.
The Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process was instituted because of the need to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildland fires caused by PG&E’s infrastructure, the commission reported.
‘Triggering event’ involves vegetation management
The CPUC resolution explains that the triggering event that led to the action was that PG&E has made “insufficient progress toward approved safety or risk-driven investments related to its electric business.”
Specifically, the commission said PG&E has not sufficiently prioritized its vegetation management based on risk.
“PG&E ranks its power line circuits by wildfire risk, but the work performed in 2020 demonstrates that PG&E is not making risk-driven investments. PG&E is not doing the majority of EVM [enhanced vegetation management] work – or even a significant portion of work – on the highest risk lines,” the document says.
The document goes on to explain that over the course of 2020 and early 2021, PG&E provided the CPUC’s Wildfire Safety Division with three different lists ranking its power lines by risk. Each risk ranking differed from the others in material respects, the commission said.
On each of the lists, the CPUC said it showed that less than 5 percent of the enhanced vegetation management work that PG&E completed in 2020 was on the 20 highest-risk power lines. This failure to appropriately prioritize and conduct the vegetation management on the highest-risk power lines is a triggering event under step one of the process.
Pertinent to Lake County, the Middletown circuit is featured on one of those lists, issued in September of last year, ranking the top 20 highest risk circuits.
At that time, PG&E reported 59 miles of enhanced vegetation management was completed on those circuits, with nearly 20 miles on the Middletown circuit alone, the most of any of the circuits.
The CPUC is requiring PG&E to submit its corrective action plan for approval by the commission’s executive director. The plan is to consist of reporting starting on day 20 following the resolution’s approval and every 90 days afterward until the CPUC no longer requires it.
Among the many items required in that plan, PG&E has to explain what contributed to its failure to adequately prioritize the highest risk lines; a detailed list of vegetation management projects for this calendar year and the subsequent one, if available; changes to its risk models; and a detailed description of the circumstances that contributed to PG&E management’s inconsistent reporting on the details of its risk modeling and risk ranking lists.
In the resolution’s conclusion, it notes, “Nothing in this Resolution precludes the Commission from placing PG&E into another Step of the EOE Process if warranted.”
Separately, on Tuesday, PG&E submitted a response to the Public Advocates Office’s recommendation that the CPUC’s Wildfire Safety Division reject PG&E’s proposed wildfire safety plan due to “numerous significant deficiencies.”
In response, PG&E said it has so far conducted more than 1,800 miles of enhanced vegetation management and 342 miles of system hardening; installed more than 600 weather stations and high definition cameras; and also installed 603 sectionalizing devices, which allowed for a reduction in the scope and impact of PSPS events in 2020.
“We also recognized some gaps in 2020 and offered specific plans for addressing those gaps in 2021,” the company said.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The attorney for a Novato woman facing vehicular manslaughter charges for a March drunk driving crash that killed two Clearlake residents has raised issues with her mental competency.
Keilah Marie Coyle, 22, had a hearing in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday for the initial appearance of counsel.
She’s charged with two counts each of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, negligent vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence causing injury, with special allegations for great bodily injury and an enhancement that would give additional prison time on conviction for causing death to more than one person.
At the Tuesday hearing, Coyle did not enter a plea. Instead, her attorney, Tim Hodson of Sacramento, declared a doubt about her competency, which requires a separate process before the criminal case can move forward.
On the night of March 13, Coyle was driving her 2003 Ford F-250 pickup on Highway 29 north of Middletown when she crossed the highway’s solid double yellow lines and collided head-on with a 2000 GMC van driven by 53-year-old Cassandra Elaine Rolicheck.
Both Rolicheck and her passenger, Miguel Maciel Dominguez, 47, died in the wreck.
The CHP’s Clear Lake Area office confirmed to Lake County News that a chemical test was conducted and found that Coyle was under the influence of alcohol.
Hours before the fatal wreck, Coyle had been involved in a noninjury hit-and-run crash on Highway 101 in Sonoma County, the CHP said.
With Coyle’s attorney raising the matter of competency, the court must now evaluate it.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said the criminal proceedings are now suspended pending an evaluation of Coyle for competency by a doctor.
If Coyle is found to be incompetent, the criminal case can’t continue until she regains competence, said Hinchcliff.
In other cases in Lake County where mental competency has been an issue, defendants have undergone treatment – sometimes at state mental hospital facilities – before being returned to continue the legal proceedings.
Hinchcliff said the court is scheduled to receive the doctor’s report on whether or not Coyle is mentally competent on May 11.
Coyle remains in custody at the Lake County Jail, with bail set at $2 million, according to jail records.